Wars of the Aoten
Chapter LVI
Dungo, quickly alerted of his minister’s misfortune, fast approached the scene, his typical Bedoua rolling gait and billowing robes making him look like a distant stampede of elephants. All the clansmen outside the fortress rushed to the point where body met earth met wall, and many joined from within as well, all gathering to stoically stand and quietly wonder at the passing of spirit, the heavy Dungo of course bringing up the rear. His cheeks huffed and puffed, red with exertion and emotion at seeing Krait’s still form.
“What has happened? What tidings do I hear? Has more calamity befallen the Bedoua in this forsaken place? Who is this? Who is this?” his mouth overflowed, his ears neither seeking nor waiting upon any answer.
“Vizier,” began Theodoric. “Your man Krait has fallen to his death from the lookout tower.” He offered the crumpled glasses as proof. “Sometimes an infant Melic meets such an end, and it is all the same.”
Dungo tenderly took the twisted metal, one lens missing, and considered them quietly. “Ah, my minister, my friend Krait! What you have given for the good of your people, for the good of all the clans of Medialia, at the behest of your vizier! Fallen — fallen? Krait? Fallen from that great height? How so? Who has seen this thing happen? First Humus, and now Krait! And we have not yet even put lance to a single giant! Oh, the Bedoua have strayed far from their desert home, and thus has Wolven reckoned with us! What are we to do for Krait, poor Krait. How could he have fallen? What business had he in the tall tower? Who has seen this terrible event?”
“I saw,” said Wyllem. “Many of us gathered at the other end of the stockade.” He turned to some of his fellows. “Did you not hear his scream just before he fell?” Several men nodded.
“You do not know the great distress this event brings upon us,” said Dungo, becoming more agitated. “Surely Wolven has given us only a taste of his displeasure, and he will wreak his vengeance upon us when we are found without our covering and the moon rises full.”
“Lo, what has happened?” said Mercedi from above, descending a ladder from the parapet.
“A Bedoua man has died, fallen from the tower,” said Artur. “You be careful, regent.”
“Aye, but I am practiced in such climbing. Perhaps this Bedoua man was not so accustomed. Perhaps he should have been more careful,” she said carelessly.
“Madam regent, surely he did not know such activities, being from the dunes,” said Dungo. “And yet we are required to scale up and down ladders like the scarmonkeys of the northern forest. I fear you do not understand our predicament now. We must travel back to our tent city, and the full moon will surely be upon us in mere days. We can not escape the vicious judgments of Wolven without fulfilling our traditions and seeking our protection. And yet we can not stay here until that great pocked rock hides its light, for we must return a body without decay to the family of Krait.”
“Lo, ’twas Krait?” Mercedi said with disingenuous surprise. “Surely no songs will be sung for this one. A favor has been done for us all.”
“Madam! I must protest! I might believe that Krait’s horrible end pleases you! For years he served me loyally, more so than any other but Sylva, and his death will be a great detriment to the Bedoua now and forever, and to our struggle against the Aoten in between! Oh, were the Aoten our only burden to bear! I do not know what I will do now! I do not know who I will ask what to do! We must return Krait to his family, and not fall under the fangs of Wolven in the light of the full moon! Do you not understand? We must do what can not be done! This difficulty weighs upon me immensely! I must choose wisely, and quickly! And without my first minister!” Dungo’s intense agitation turned Mercedi’s face quite pallid.
“Truly, we must have no such talk, regardless of what we think of Krait,” said Artur to Mercedi, his temper rising as well just for the sake of Dungo’s bluster. “One of our warriors has fallen, and we must give him due respect.”
Confusion covered Mercedi’s face. “Lo, but –”
“Indeed,” said Theodoric, lost in thought for the past several minutes. “Krait would not desire such climbing. So why would he have been in the tower? Bedoua posts are in the fields, not as lookouts. A fish still swims better in rapids than in dirt.”
Aachen had knelt beside Krait, examining the body and the wounds to his head. “Wyllem, you say you heard him scream, then saw him fall?”
“What would make us look but his scream?”
“Then he made no sound on the way down?”
“No, I can not say that he did, to my memory. What difference would it make if he had?”
“It might mean the fall killed him,” said Aachen. “But it didn’t. See this wound? It is straight and long. Krait’s skull was not crushed upon the ground — it was cut cleanly, by a sharp object, a heavy, sharp object.”
“What do you mean to say?” asked Artur.
“Somebody killed him in the tower — killed him, then pushed him out,” said Aachen, standing up. “Birds sing until the dawn, then the sunflower follows the light. That’s what I think.” Theodoric nodded.
“Lo, then, an excellent job by somebody,” Mercedi foolishly added.
“Enough! Enough!” cried Dungo furiously, pulling at his mustache braids. “This insolence! Madam, I can take no more! My own dearly departed Humus trained this good friend Aachen the Melic in the apothecary, and to me his word is as if inspired by his god Drueed!” Spittle was flying from his teeth as Dungo railed. “He tells me my wonderful aide Krait has been killed, by some coward, some knave, some ne’er-do-well bastard spore son of a bitch, we know not what! You will not make jokes, you will not speak so carelessly about a brave Bedoua official, about the right hand of the Bedoua vizier! I will not have it, or you will feel a Bedoua lance between your ribs, I swear it, I swear it by the slobbering jaws of Wolven himself!”
“Whoa, hold it, hold it!” Artur yelled harshly, and stepped between Dungo and Mercedi; but he needn’t, for Mercedi knew not to further provoke a fuming volcano. She knew little of diplomacy, but she understood the delicate balance she now had to strike for her clan. “In Rufoux territory there will be no more killing unless it is under Rufoux law. Aachen, you are sure of what you say?”
“Yes, quite sure. Of course, I could be wrong. But quite sure.”
“You know,” Wyllem added. “I believe I saw a figure moving in the tower after seeing Krait fall.”
“Wolven!” shuddered Dungo.
“A figure of a man,” Wyllem reassured him. “But how could we ever identify him?”
“I put that up to you,” said Artur. “You love asking questions so much — go do your best to find out who you saw.”
“Lo, that wound was not made by any Raspar arrow,” Mercedi said testily.
“I can not believe this! I can not believe the calamity that Wolven has brought down upon us!” Dungo went on in despair. “The full moon will arise in two days, no more than three, and we have a body to return to a Bedoua family. The family can hold no funeral feast without the body! Already Wolven is pouring out his spite upon us, and we have no way to get back to the desert without him seeing! Oh, if only I could still ask Krait. I must find Sylva, I must seek out Sylva wherever she is, and discover what she thinks of this! She will tell me what to do! For god’s sake, I hope she’ll tell me what to do!”
“Well, at least gather him up, and take him to your encampment,” said Artur, his stomach turning sour at the talk.
“Lo, do we not already know who has done this deed?” asked Mercedi after the Bedoua corpse had been carted away. “Who among us remains hidden in mystery, constantly seeking no gain but their own, always pestering about trades and possessions?”
“What accusations make you, regent?” said Theodoric. “We have all agreed to gather here, in common alliance.”
“Aye, but who knows what motives lie underneath?” she continued. “The Koinoni have an unsavory reputation throughout Medialia, known even in the Raspar city.”
“One can hardly use this reason to accuse them of murder. You put their lives in the balance.”
“Lo, they are only Koinoni. They hardly count.”
“You think Koinoni killed him?” said Artur, only too eager to go along. “That would figure!”
“Lo, every nation they visit drives these people out, and yet they have been given run of our stockade. How do we know what they have been scheming here? They may be in league with the Aoten, for all ye know.” She tried to read the eyes of Artur and Theodoric.
“Those sneaking cheats! In their dark robes, one could easily hide in the shadows up there!” Artur mused, looking high into the tower.
“Aye, and do they not have the reputation of taking liberties with the unsuspecting, with those whose backs are turned?” Mercedi continued. “It saddens me to think of poor Krait, no doubt drawn into the tower by some deceit, and coldly murdered!”
“Why? Why would they conspire to kill Krait?” asked Theodoric.
“Lo, I know not. For something he owned, perhaps? The eyes can covet anything they see, the mind anything it imagines.”
“True, that,” Theodoric said, with measured interest.
“Lo, no Raspar arrow made that wound. But do not Koinoni possess strong Rufoux blades now?”
“Kylie!”
“Lo, your very blade?”
“I think you’re on to something,” Artur spat. “I’ll tell Wyllem to concentrate on the Koinoni — find out what they’ve been up to.”
“Aye, and only a day ago Yarrow came to me, trying to buy favor. He snuck away from the Koinoni vessels to seek some pact with the Raspars, but important business drew me away before anything came of it.”
“How many?” asked Theodoric.
“Lo?”
“How many Koinoni came to see you?”
“Aye, five, I believe. Nay — six. They came to seek the favor of the Raspar people.”
“Yes, six, for Koinoni always move about in sixes. In fact, I accompanied six back to their boats early this morning. Yarrow and five others.” Theodoric’s eyes narrowed.
“Lo?”
“And we see not even six among us now in the village.”
Mercedi fell silent.
“So we know that all the Koinoni were aboard their boats when the killing occurred,” Theodoric concluded.
“Damn!” said Artur.